Garment.



F. L. McIVIULLEN.

GARMENT.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 18, ms.

Patented Apr.l3,1915.

2 SHEETs-SEEET 1.

ATTO RN EY THE NORRIS PETERS 60.. FHOTO-LITHO.. WA'SHINGTGN, By C F. L. IVIcIVI ULLEN.

GARMENT.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 18. :913.

LJAQW Patented Apr.13, 1915.

2 SHEET$SHBET 2.

WITNESSES ATTORNEY I IHE NORRIS PETFFJS 60., FrlOTO-LITHQ, WASHINGTON. D. C

FREDERICK LEWIS MCIVI'U'LLEN, OF NORFOLK, VIRGINIA.

GARMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 13, I915.

Application filed October 18, 1913. Serial No. 795,950.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FREDERICK Lnwis MolVluLLEN, a citizen of the United States, residin at Norfolk, in the county of Norfolk and gtate of Virginia, have invented a new and useful Garment, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to improvements in garments, and more particularly to the garments known as trousers, and its object is to provide a means for taking up the waist portion of the trousers without producing wrinkling thereof.

Ordinarily trousers are made with waist take-ups in the form of one or more buckle and strap devices, which while reducing the waist of the garment causes a puckering or wrinkling thereof at the point where the take-up is located. Ready made garments while manufactured for no particular person are, however, manufactured according to a certain scale. For instance, a pair of trousers that may be cut thirty-two inches in the waist would be cut forty inches about the hips, and larger sizes in the waist are proportionately larger about the hips. @ften, however, a person buying such a garment finds that in order to get a proper fit about the hips he is compelled to get a garment too large in the waist, or vice versa, wherefore if the hip size be correct then the garment must be drawn up at the waist by the customary strap and buckle adjustment, which expedient cannot be properly said to alter thesize of the garment.

With the present invention the waist size may be altered by some inches without altering the hip size. This is brought about by removing a portion of the cloth at the waist of the garment during the manufacture of the same and then uniting the edges at the cut away portion, after which the wrinkling or puckering so produced is scattered into the hip portion of the garment by ironing. Finally, the edges where sewed are ripped apart and a strip of cloth is applied of asize to permit the edges to spread apart to. their first position. Now, by the application of a flap to one side of the open portion and the provision of buttons or other suitable fastening devices at the other side and suitably placed, the spread-apart por tion of thev garment may be. again brought together as desired, but without any puckering or wrinkling at all, and the waist line of the garment may be varied within considerable limits, say, two inches, more or less, without varying the hip measurement, and without the production of any wrinkles or fullness. By this means the. garment is readily fitted to the hips of the wearer, and the waist may then be taken up smoothly to fit where the waist is naturally smaller than is customary in ready made garments designed for a person of the specified hip measurement.

The present invention also contemplates an improvement relating to a waist band and belt which may be employed in conjunction with the adjustable waist arrangement, whereby the presence of a belt is simulated without the necessity of the actual use of a belt in the customary manner.

The invention will be best understood from a consideration of the following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, with the further understanding that while the drawings show a practical form of the invention, the latter is not confined to any strict conformity with the showing of the drawings, but may be changed and modified so long as such changes and modifications mark no material departure from the salient features of the invention.

In the drawings :-Figures 1 to 7 are more or less diagrammatic views showing a succession of steps in the application of the present invention to trousers. Figs. 8 and 9 are views similar to the preceding views but illustrating the operation of the invention. Fig. 10 isa detail section on the line 10-1O of Fig. 8 and drawn on a larger scale. Fig. 11 is a similar view on the line 1111 of Fig. 9. Fig. 12 is a more or less diagrammatic view of a portion of a pair of trousers showing the waist band and belt construction. Fig. 13 is a section on the line 1313 of Fig. 12. Fig. 14 is a view similar to Fig. 12 but showing a somewhat modified construction.

In the drawings there is shown a portion of the waist and. hip part of a pair of trousers 1, and so far as the structure of the trousers, is concerned it may follow the vi al: practice- In carrying out the invention a V or gore shaped piece of cloth is out from the garment on each side'of the rear center line, the cut extending into the garment downwardly through and for a short distance beyond the location of the hip pocket opening, the wide end of the out, which may be nearly an inch in width, opening at the waist line. Such a cut is indicated at 2 in Fig. 1, and in each garment two such cuts are produced on opposite sides of the rear center line. The edges of the out are brought together and sewed as indicated at 3 in Fig. 2, thus reducing the size of the waist correspondin'gly, but this causes a fullness producing wrinkles or puckers at the part 4 about the inner end of the cut, and these wrinkles may be present elsewhere about the out. Now, the material of the garment where wrinkled is treated by ironing, as with a hot tailors iron, to scatter the fullness caused by the joining of the cut edges toward the hip parts of the garment, and this distribution is indicated by the dotted arrows 5 of Fig. 3. The result is that even though the waist measurement has been reduced without a change in the cut of the garment, the cloth is nevertheless smooth. Now hip pocket openings 6 are produced in position to be intersected by the meeting edges of the cuts, this condition being illustrated in Fig. 4. Following this the sewed edges of each out are ripped apart from the waist line to the hip pocket cut producing an opening 2" as shown in Fig. 5. Thus the waist line is enlarged to its original size, but still without wrinkling of the cloth, while the cloth below the hip pocket openings remains smooth and unwrinkled. The hip-pocket lining is now applied as indicated at 7 in Fig. 6, and this lining has a continuation 8 carried to thewaist line, and is extended across the opening 2*, while the edges of this opening are united to the extension 8 by stitching 9. Of course, a separate piece of cloth might replace the extension 8 since the function of the cloth 8 is simply to close the opening 2 and prevent it from spreading to an extent to cause the waist to be larger than originally intended. The garment will now fit smoothly anyone of the waist and hip measurements for which the garment is made, and for such a person the operations described are unnecessary. Ready-made garments, however, are only made in stock sizes, while persons vary considerably in hip and waist measurements with respect to such sizes and can only be accommodated in ordinary garments'by the provision of the ordinary take-up straps and buckles.

To provide for the reducing of the waist size of the garment to accommodate persons whose waist measurement is less than that for which the garment is initially made, there is sewed to one side of the opening 2 a flap 10 which may be of generally triangular form with one long side of the same length as one edge of the opening 2 and with a buttonhole 11 formed in the apex of the triangular flap. Of course, it will be understood that another form of flap may be used, but the triangular flap serves the purpose, and, moreover, fully covers the opening 2*. Sewed to the body of the garment at substantially equal distances from the inner narrow end of the opening 2 are buttons 12, 13, two such buttons being shown, but the number is not necessarily so limited. The button 12 is so located that the buttonhole portion of the flap may be traversed by the button 12 when the opening 2 is fully open, while the button 13 is so located that when it traverses the buttonhole of the flap the edges of the opening 2 are brought together, thus reducing the waist size of the garment correspondingly without a like reduction in the hip portion of the garment and wholly without wrinkling or puckering of the garment.

In Fig. 7 the flaps are shown applied, but not in use.

In Fig. 8 the flaps are shown buttoned upon the buttons 12 whereby the full normal waist size of the garment may be utilized.

In Fig. 9 the buttonholes are shown as traversed by the buttons 13, the edges of the opening 2 being then brought into substantial parallelism and contact or nearly so. When the waist of the garment is contracted in size by buttoning the flap 10 upon the button 13 the cloth insert 8 folds upon itself as indicated in Fig. 11, but when the full waist measurement is obtained, then the cloth 8 is outstretched across the opening 2.

The garment may be made initially of a size corresponding to the drawn-in position of the waist portion, and then for stout per sons the flaps 10 may be released from the buttons 13 representing the normal size and applied to the buttons 12, thus permitting an enlargement of the garment instead of permitting only a contraction of the waist portion of the garment as in ordinary readymade clothing.

In addition to the arrangement whereby the waist of the garment may be enlarged from normal size or contracted if needed without wrinkling or puckering of the garment, provision is made for simulating a belt at the front of the garment, since it is becoming customary to use two piece suits instead of three piece suits, and to employ a belt about the waist to hold the waist portion of the garment against the body. Since by the present invention the trousers may be made to fit snugly and smoothly the use of a belt to hold the waist portion about the body is unnecessary, but since custom demands the wearing of a belt for appearance at least, the present invention contemplates the employment of a waist band 1 1 having a continuation l5 beyond the fly indicated at 16. 1* or some. purposes a button 17 may be employed to hold the upper end of the fly together, and another button 18 is then employed to secure the outer end of the extension 15 to the portion of the waist band which overlaps, while the loop 19 serves to hold the extension 15 close to the portion of the waist band between the buttons 17 and 18.

A better and neater appearance, and one more nearly simulating a belt is provided by the arrangement shown in Fig. '14; where there is a continuation 15 of the waist band on one side of the fly 16 and a buckle 20 is attached to the waist band on the other side of the fly, so that the extension 15 may be passed through the buckle and its free end 15 can then be passed through a loop 19 provided for the purpose, while another loop 19 on the same portion of the waist band provided with an extension 15 adds to the effect, and this is heightened by making the extension 15 and the visible portion of the waist band from which it comes of leather or some other suitable material. In the structure shown in Fig. 1 1 the upper ends of the fly portion of the garment may be secured together by any'normally invis ible fastening device simply indicated at 21, there being numerous such devices in the form of hooks and loops, ball and socket or snap buttons, and the like.

There has been for many years a demand for adjustable waist band trousers, but heretofore the devices proposed have been open to serious objections.

With the present invention the vents are situated at the rear of the garment where they in no wise interfere with the cut of the trousers and the present invention may be used with any and all systems of cutting.

A. distinctive feature of the present invention lies in the fact that the attached flap fits perfectly smooth in any of its adjustments for the point of the flap rises or falls when moved into engaging relation to the upper or lower button and in either position all fullness or wrinkling of the garment is avoided and all necessary adjustments may be allowed for by using an appropriate number of buttons, it being understood that the invention is by no means confined to the use of two buttons, as illustrated in the drawlngs.

It will be further understood that the invention is not confined to the use of buttons and buttonholes, for it is customary to employ the snap or ball and socket buttons and other types of fastening devices in place of buttons and buttonholes.

What is claimed is 1. A pair of trousers having tapering notches between the waist line and the hip pocket portions of the trousers, with the fullness caused by drawing the edges of the notches together scattered into the hip portions of the trousers, a flap secured to the trousers adjacent to one side of each notch, and a plurality of fastening. means for the respective flap on the other side of each notch and placed at substantially equal distances from the apex of the notch and each notch being also provided with filling means for preventing spread of the notch beyond a predetermined extent.

2. A pair of trousers having \I-shaped notches extending from the waist line toward the hip pockets with said V-shaped notches closed by a lining and with the fullness caused by drawing the edges of the notch together scattered into the hip portion of the trousers, a flap attached to one edge of each notch and of a length to extend beyond the other edge thereof, and a plurality of fastening means in coacti've relation to the flap and located on the other side of the notch in substantially equidistant relation to the closed end of the notch.

3. A pair of trousers having V-shaped notches extending from the waist line to ward the hip pocketswith said V-shaped notches closed by a lining, a flap attached to one edge of each notch and of a length to extend beyond the other edge thereof, and a plurality of fastening means in coactive relation to the flap and located on the other side of the notch in substantially equi-distant relation to the closed end of the notch, the material of the trousers having the fullness produced by the closing together of the walls of the notch predistributed toward the hip portion of the trousers.

4. A pair of trousers having tapering notches extending from the waist line toward and below the hip-pocket openings with the fullness caused by drawing the edges of the notches together scattered into the hip portions of the trousers, and those portions of the notches below the hip pocket openings permanently closed, filling means for the notches above the hip pocket openings for preventing spread of the notches beyond a predetermined extent, and means for taking up or reducing the width of the notches to correspondingly reduce the waist of the trousers.

5. A. pair of trousers having tapering notches extending from the waist line toward and below the hip pocket openings, with the fullness caused by drawing the edges of the notches together scattered into the hip portions of the trousers, and with those portions of the notches below the hip pocket openings permanently closed and the portions above the hip pocket openings provided with means for preventing spread thereof beyond a predetermined extent, and a flap of triangular shape for each notch with the base of the triangle extending along one long edge of the notch, said flap as my own, I have hereto affixed my signa and the portion of the trousers on the other ture in the presence of two Witnesses. side of the notch having coating means for securing the apex of the flap to the trousers LREDERIOK LEWIS MGMULLM' at diiierent points substantially equi-distant WVitnesses: from the apex of the notch. C. B. TRACY,

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing ALAN L. BAXTER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents Washington, I). G. 

